Sophisticated mechanical locking technology provides security in futuristic building

Locksmith offers its customers total solutions

The futuristic building at Strandkai 1 in Hamburg, known as the "House of Unilever," was considered a model project in 2009. Visitors could look out over the port of Hamburg and the cruise ship berths in the HafenCity. Today, it houses a headquarters of Xing (New York). To ensure the security of employees and tenants, locksmith Carsten Heuer replaced the existing locking systems with Wilka's SI6 profile with vertical key guide. About 600 units of this sophisticated mechanical locking system were delivered in January.

Cartsen Heuer is a skilled Wilka specialist with more than 30 years of experience in the industry. He offers his customers total solutions, where his specialty is clearly in the field of mechanics. 10% of his turnover today consists of sales of electronic systems and that share is only growing. 

The locksmith was also commissioned to design the locking system for the Strandkai building and install the cylinders. Wilka delivered 600 mechanical SI6 cylinders in January of this year. These comply with DIN 18252 and DIN EN 1303 and were equipped with six pin tumblers (from 30 mm) - for short (26.5 mm) or asymmetric cylinders, five pin tumblers are used. Special diabolic pins made of hardened steel result in additional picking security and protect against drilling out. 

Protection pins in key and cylinder core offer users maximum security against key copying. The paracentric key profile provides additional protection against unauthorized opening with lock picking tools.

"The new tenant had different requirements for the locking technology, so it was decided to replace the mechanical locking systems from a Swiss manufacturer with completely new locking systems. As a specialist, I suggested the SI6 system from Wilka. In the end, the owner deliberately preferred these mechanical locking systems to electrical ones because of the overall price tag," says Carsten Heuer. 

"The use of floors and rooms will change significantly in the coming months and years, so the locking systems must also be future-proof. With the new locking systems, the building is also ready for that. Today, this building is equipped with 19 groups and several central locking systems. Tenants have access to the building at all times, but the publicly accessible parts of the building are locked for the rest at night. Service providers, such as cleaning staff, have keys that give them access to specifically defined areas of the building. The fire department was given a central master key."

Facility managers coordinate

Because multiple keys are in use for each cylinder, about 1,700 keys have been issued to date. "Both the main tenant and the owners appointed a facility manager. They manage the locking plans, issue keys and take back keys when they are no longer needed. So I am in regular contact with both of them," says the locksmith. "So far, no keys have been lost, but the installation is also relatively new. Should that happen in the future, it will not be necessary to replace the entire system. At that time, Wilka will provide the necessary support, allowing us to figure out which cylinders or groups need to be replaced. We currently have about 50 cylinders kept in stock as spares. So there is no need to set up a hotline for replacement elements, but of course that may be necessary in the future."